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Overview
This brown glass beer bottle was produced by the Associated Bottlers Co Ltd (formerly the Auckland Bottle Co. Ltd.).* The words 'THIS BOTTLE IS THE PROPERTY OF THE ASSOCIATED BOTTLERS CO LTD NZ' are embossed around the base of the bottle, and the letters ABC are embossed inside a large triangle on one side.
Whose bottles?
The production of glass bottles was an expensive enterprise in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and manufacturers retained the ownership of their bottles so that they could recycle and reuse them. In the 1940s the Associated Bottlers Co. Ltd. ran a series of advertisements reminding the public that the bottles remained their sole property, and warning that legal proceedings would be taken 'against anyone wrongfully using, dealing in, or retaining its bottles.' Some storekeepers ignored this warning, and were made to publicly declare their wrongdoing in the Public Notices section of the local newspaper.
*ABC began as the Auckland Bottling Company in 1920, then became Associated Bottlers Company in 1941 to cover both the North and South Islands.